The beginning

My memories of the war seem to be little anecdotes rather than a complete history and so I will write them down as such. This is my first effort!
ANECDOTE 1.
I was just over 8 when the war started and I remember the first day exactly. Mr Chamberlain had announced the declaration of war and I thought that the Germans would start bombing that very day! I was terrified because I had heard of the gas attacks in the first world war and expected the same from the Germans in this one and I did not have a gas mask! But the early days passed fairly quietly and were only punctuated by practice air raid warnings when the Wardens wearing black painted helmets with a white 'W' on the front used to ride around on bicycles blowing police whistles. I could only join my family downstairs and under a table. Later we had an Anderson shelter which was dug and built by my two brothers and my father. My Father worked at the Admiralty Wireless School in the Dockyard and had to go there ever now and then as a member of the LDV (Local Defense Volunteers) where he "defended" the dockyard by strolling around the wall and, at the end of his shift, passed on his Short Lee Enfield rifle and ONE bullet! What he was expected to do against the mass of paratroopersI don't know! In those early days we all watched for the parachutes of either the German soldiers or the spies all of which were supposed to be disguised as nuns. We youngsters certainly got hold of some wierd ideas!
When the bombers came in 1940 and 1941, I can remember that we always knew which were ours and which were theres by the sound of the engines. The German ones had a sort of a throb which was quite distinctive. Whenever that happened my father would hold me tightly to him and he shivered with fright. I never did, not because I was brave but because we all knew we would win in the end and that no bomb would ever drop on us - that always happened to someone else.
My Brother joined the Civil Defense and was a messenger. He wore a black helmet with a white 'M'on the front. He used to go off at night on his bicycle to do his part and I know that my Mum and Dad were worried sick about his exploits. At one time my father was furious because my brother had been out one night and had been called upon to help load the dead bodies from some bombed buildings into ambulances and onto trucks. He was 16 years old.
In the days after the raids, we kids used to go round the roads and backs (the alleyways at the back of the houses)to collect any pieces of shrapnel from the bommbs that had landed. They were the collecters items of the day and we all had quite a load of jagged pieces of metal hidden away.

ANECDOTE 2
As the war settled down, we used to spend our evenings listening to the wireless. The BBC news of course but we also tuned in to hear the man Joyce. "Germany calling, Germany calling. Here is the news in English. Today the Fuehrer announced............." etc In later years and as a serviceman I had to study what are known as "The principles of War". The second of these is "Maintenance of Morale". The effect of this man Joyce, Lord Haw-Haw, was quite devastating at times. I recall most vividly that he announced that the clock on Victoris Station was one minute slow. Give some thought about this fact and it will be quickly realised that it was entirely useless and very easily obtainable as it would be for the clock on Berlin or Moscow Station. But the effect was dynamic as the next day everybody was talking about it. "If they know that then they must know everything. We might as well chuck it in now" Everybody said that the Gestapo (everything was the Gestapo!) was so efficient that we had no chance and it was useless to carry on. A lot of pieces of information got to us, the civilians first from Joyce. The sinking of the first Aircraft Carrier for example. I think is was called the Glorious or Corageous, I am unsure now The effect of this man was only blunted by his own stupidity when he claimed the sinking of ships that were not sunk or, on one notable occasion, the sinking of a naval shore station! I think he claimed the demise of the Ark Royal about 4 times before she was finally torpedoed. I still wonder what journalist it was who thought of the name "Lord Haw-Haw". It certainly made a joke of him and the journalist concerned did the best day's work of his war life when he thought of it.

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